Raising the Grand Duke of the North as a Farmer Behind Dad’s Back - Chapter 4

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 4
* * *
The sky hung gray and heavy.
The sun was there, and yet everything felt dimmed somehow.
“Excuse me.”
Dantelion lowered his gaze and placed his hand on the worn doorknob.
Creak.
The smell of stale dust reached him first.
‘An abandoned house.’
Somewhere…… time seemed to have stopped in this place, lending it a strange, unsettling air.
Clink, clink. Each of his steps rang out with a cold metallic sound. He moved through the interior slowly, methodically.
Only for a moment.
His footsteps ceased abruptly at one spot.
“…….”
Before a pile of old cloth, bulging at its center.
Silver-gray thread jutting out along the edge…… or was it hair?
In that instant, a hairline fracture appeared in the Holy Knight’s otherwise cold, expressionless face.
Without thinking, he moved his hand and pulled back the blanket. A sharp breath escaped him.
What tumbled limply into his grasp was……
A cloth doll with limbs sewn on haphazardly.
Eyes, nose, and mouth sketched crookedly. A small thumb-shaped sticker wedged into its chest……
Why.
Had he truly expected to find a dead child beneath this white cloth?
‘A child, of all things.’
It was a thing most alien to him—something with which he’d have no conceivable connection.
Thump-thump. The familiar ache returned to his temples.
Dantelion straightened his spine with a low sigh, his long silver hair cascading over his broad shoulders in neat waves.
“Captain Dantelion!”
Just then, his adjutant came running.
“As you commanded, we’ve dispatched all the Holy Knights to Z District. We’ll be relocating the residents to the Temple shelter shortly!”
“Well done.”
“Yes, sir. But……”
Mark glanced sideways at Dantelion before asking cautiously.
“Captain, I have to ask…… why are you here of all places……?”
“…….”
“Relief efforts for the poor are something we can handle among ourselves……”
Dantelion remained silent for a moment, then answered in a measured voice.
“This is naturally a matter requiring my personal attention.”
But truthfully,
even he did not understand.
Why he was here at all.
He had simply heard Mark’s report about Z District and found his body moving of its own accord.
More than that—when he came to his senses, he was already standing before this hut.
‘…… Troubling.’
It was the first time he’d lost control of himself like this.
He had always been moved only by the Temple’s doctrine and duty.
As a Holy Knight, he was skilled at discarding what was unnecessary—emotion, desire, relationship, affection, such things.
But why today.
‘Was there something I was meant to find?’
Yet…… what could it be?
An object?
…… A person?
“…….”
The core near his heart suddenly pulsed violently.
A piercing pain shot through his right arm and left eye. His jaw clenched as he endured it, breath coming thin and strained.
‘My Holy Power……’
Why was it so corrupted?
He had no memory of when the corruption began—only speculation that perhaps the monster subjugation campaign in the Western Region had simply lasted too long.
But unlike other Holy Knights, he saw little improvement even after drinking Purification Medicine. As a result, he could only bear the pain that struck him in waves.
‘Is this a trial from the Goddess……’
He was born and raised to serve the Goddess of Travel. Not once had he ever gone against that calling.
‘If you grant me trials, I shall accept them gladly.’
The moment he closed his fingers around the Prayer Pendant, his agitation vanished, replaced by an expression of cold, austere detachment.
“Commander!”
Mark, who had been checking the messenger bird, called out to Dantelion with sudden urgency.
“A report just came in from Squad Two—they found illegal drugs and strange magical traces in the village chief’s house!”
Dantelion’s eyes grew dark and sharp.
“And… there’s a report that a cart slipped out through the north gate—”
Indeed.
So that was what had been nagging at him all this time.
‘The Goddess guided me here for this very reason.’
There was crime afoot.
His straight, measured hand closed around the hilt of his sword.
“Pursue them.”
He spoke in the voice of an apostle—austere, ascetic.
“As of this hour, seal all exits to Z District and secure the village chief into custody. Furthermore—”
Dantelion found himself adding something he hadn’t consciously decided to say.
“Question the villagers. Investigate whether anyone is missing from among them.”
“Yes, sir!”
He couldn’t say why those words had come out. But a strange intuition seized him.
If someone fled this place, he could not afford to let them slip through his grasp. That premonition burned in him….
Dantelion spun and rushed out of the hut. His heart was pounding with unusual violence.
His hand moved habitually toward the Prayer Pendant when he realized he was still holding the cloth doll.
“…How troublesome.”
His hollow gaze fixed on the doll. It was something he would normally not have given a second glance, yet his fingers refused to let it go.
‘I must find its owner and return it.’
He slipped the doll into his cloak’s pocket and walked on.
And in that very instant—
Snap!
The Thumb-shaped Sticker embedded in the doll detached itself and clung to Dantelion’s body, dissolving into him smoothly.
The whole thing happened so swiftly that he never noticed.
He merely felt, oddly enough, that breathing had become easier.
Dantelion’s vacant gaze remained fixed forward.
His sky, regrettably, was still the color of ash.
* * *
“Heave-ho!”
Thud-crash, rumble-rumble-rumble….
The cart tumbled down into the gorge and smashed to pieces.
“What… seriously? I have to ditch the cart too? I could’ve sold that for five gold…!”
Uncle Paul stared at the wreckage of his Corpse Cart with a miserable face, scratching the back of his head and muttering something I couldn’t quite hear.
I was pretending to be unfazed, but my heart was still hammering away like mad!
‘I almost got caught…!’
Just a moment ago.
“Are you in here?”
When Father came looking for me at the hut.
I’d used every ounce of strength to wipe the graffiti from the floor, then escaped through the dog door on the back of the house.
“Why… why is Father here of all times?!”
I ran through the alleys like a madwoman, my fingers pressing against the back of my neck.
“It’s gone… just like I thought…!”
There used to be a small mark right there.
Faint when I was a baby, it grew clearer as I aged—the Klein Duke House Direct Line Mark.
In my past life, the old woman who raised me in the slums had discovered that mark and sent a letter to Father before she died.
But my connection to Father in this life was severed. So naturally, the mark had vanished too.
‘I don’t understand any of this….’
In any case, after that.
I ran at full speed and found Uncle Paul right ahead….
That is, the undertaker of this district.
“Uncle! Please help me get out of here too!”
“Yikes! You scared me half to death!”
Uncle Paul handled corpse disposal, so he had relatively free passage in and out of Z District.
‘After all, according to my past-life memories, Uncle Paul left Z District today and headed to the Northern Region!’
“This is what you brought, isn’t it?”
I thrust the Northern Region relocation pamphlet at him without ceremony.
“Free housing! Free land!”
“Well, yes, that’s true, but…….”
And so I managed to escape Z District loaded onto Uncle Paul’s corpse cart.
Then, just moments ago, we disposed of the cart itself to erase any trace of our escape.
We didn’t forget to toss Uncle’s belongings and mine one by one into the gorge.
This way, even if someone picked up our trail, it would look like we’d fallen and died here, wouldn’t it?
“But really…… do I have to play dead to this extent?”
“You said you didn’t want the Holy Knights from your village catching on to us!”
“That’s…… true. I escaped from labor service at the Imperial Palace once before. If they catch me, it’s straight to prison.”
“Exactly!”
I wiped the sweat from my forehead, saying that caution never hurt anyone.
‘Phew…… that was really like a storm…….’
As if all my strength had been drained away, my limbs trembled and shook.
Still, there was one thing I could be grateful for.
“……You have to stick close to Dad from now on, understand!”
Just before leaving the hut, I succeeded in leaving behind a Holy Power Sticker. I don’t know where that split-second reflexiveness came from, but it was a godsend.
Of course, because of that…….
[(Empty) The sticker book is completely empty (Empty)]
“Ughhhh…….”
I’d become a genuinely penniless child with zero money and zero Holy Power……!
It’s fine!
‘As long as Dad gets better, I don’t care if I’m a beggar for a while!’
“Come on…… little one! If you don’t hurry, I’m leaving without you!”
“No, wait for me!”
I scrambled up and clung to Uncle Paul’s back.
He moved carefully toward the forest so as not to leave footprints.
I held tight to his neck.
“Tsk…… does this little wisp of nothing even know what kind of man I am, following me like this…….”
Uncle grumbled as he walked.
‘What kind of person is he, you ask?’
Of course I know.
‘My savior!’
I’d once asked my father from my past life about it.
“B-but…… how did you know I was a d-daughter……?”
It was back when having a father still felt strange to me.
Father didn’t seem to mind my constant fidgeting; he held me snug against his chest and spoke.
“I received a letter. A letter written by a woman named Annie before she died, delivered to me by children who’d escaped Z District.”
“Really?”
“An undertaker named Paul had supposedly hidden them away in his corpse cart. Do you know anything about it?”
Z District was an isolated slum.
The youngest and weakest always died first—it was the natural order there.
Living in such a place, some became villains who stole others’ bread.
But others became people who showed kindness without reason.
Thanks to that Uncle Paul’s kindness, I was able to meet my father.
‘I wonder what happened to Uncle Paul in the Northern Region in my past life?’
Was he happy? I don’t really know…… but……
‘This time around, I have to repay his kindness, definitely!’
I hung from Uncle’s back like a schoolbag and gently pressed my cheek against his.
“Ha, that tickles. You little rascal.”
Then I slowly turned my head and looked back.
“…….”
I could see the small shape of Z District down below the hillside.
I thought I heard the faint sound of rough hoofbeats, but…… it was already the sound of a place far, far away.
My father’s voice still echoed in my ears.
But I shouldn’t think about it anymore.
‘I don’t want to see Dad again.’
I’d seen him too much in my past life—truly, not one single time more do I want to see him. So this is just…… just a farewell.
‘Goodbye, Dad.’
I waved to him in secret.
In this life, Hani had struck out on her own early, after all.
‘Forget it all and live happily from now on!!’
With that, I left the Temple.
And, roughly three weeks later.
After a long journey full of twists and turns.
“Wooooooooo!”
“The Northern Region! Yay-hoo!”
The two of us had finally arrived in the Northern Region!
[Errand completed! (Requester: Goddess of Travel)]
[“Yay-hoo! Go to the Northern Region and shout it out loud!”]
[Reward: 10 Pure Clean Holy Power Stickers]
[Will you accept the reward?]

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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